Evidence for an ice shelf covering the central Arctic Ocean during the penultimate glaciation

Nature Communications
M JakobssonIgor Semiletov

Abstract

The hypothesis of a km-thick ice shelf covering the entire Arctic Ocean during peak glacial conditions was proposed nearly half a century ago. Floating ice shelves preserve few direct traces after their disappearance, making reconstructions difficult. Seafloor imprints of ice shelves should, however, exist where ice grounded along their flow paths. Here we present new evidence of ice-shelf groundings on bathymetric highs in the central Arctic Ocean, resurrecting the concept of an ice shelf extending over the entire central Arctic Ocean during at least one previous ice age. New and previously mapped glacial landforms together reveal flow of a spatially coherent, in some regions >1-km thick, central Arctic Ocean ice shelf dated to marine isotope stage 6 (∼ 140 ka). Bathymetric highs were likely critical in the ice-shelf development by acting as pinning points where stabilizing ice rises formed, thereby providing sufficient back stress to allow ice shelf thickening.

References

Jun 20, 2003·Nature·M SiddallD A Smeed
Jun 24, 1966·Science·W L Donn, M Ewing
Jun 13, 1975·Science·W S Broecker
Sep 17, 2013·Nature·M A DepoorterG Moholdt

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Citations

Feb 4, 2016·Nature·Eugene Domack
Aug 20, 2019·Nature Communications·Christine L BatchelorAndrea Manica
Aug 31, 2017·Nature Communications·Ruediger SteinGerrit Lohmann
Aug 29, 2019·Science Advances·Tobias HimmlerAivo Lepland
Jun 17, 2019·Environmental Science and Pollution Research International·Fan ZhangDeliang Chen
Dec 12, 2019·Nature Communications·James A SmithRoss D Powell
Jul 11, 2020·Scientific Data·Martin JakobssonKarl B Zinglersen

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Software Mentioned

ArcMap
SWERUS
QPS
Caris

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